Monday, October 1, 2012

Well, it looks like the "choices! choices! choices!" mind set in WoW development has manifested itself quite obviously when it comes to choosing glyphs for Disc Priest PvP in Mists of Pandaria. Where PvE Holy Priest glyphs are in a famine state, there are (arguably) around 17 choices for glyphs for PvP'ing as a Disc Priest.

In this post, I'm going to go over these choices and explain why having a glut of glyphs might not be so daunting after all. After all, we're lucky to have so much choice, right?

So the way I look at it is that each of these glyphs are going to be extremely situational and choosing between them will require some planning, data, information, and guess work. The main thing we're going to have to suss out is what comps are popular for Arena and Rated Battlegrounds - this forthcoming information (i.e. what you end up seeing when you queue up after September 25th) will allow us to set some parameters within which we can decide on which glyphs to use.

I actually dipped my toes into the two new Battlegrounds this week and got absolutely stomped all over. Couldn't kill anything, couldn't stay alive - I think I'd forgotten that first week of expac PvP is all Glads vs. me in zero resilience. I bet I looked tasty. In any case, most of my glyph choices didn't matter because things were...a little crazy.

In any case, here are the glyphs that are looking viable for this season's Disc PvP:

Glyph of Desperation: This is one of my top choices in any PvP situation, and it has proved to be invaluable, especially in 2s. An obvious good choice - and after this week's BGs, where I felt like every class has a stun now, I would definitely make this one of my #1 glyphs. This glyph remains unchanged from Cata.

Glyph of Dispel Magic: As with the other dispel glyph, these usually are too understated to have any real impact. I had 362k hp in epic PvP gear at level 90 on Beta - 4.9k isn't much of a dent. Only pro is that offensive dispels don't have the same cooldown as defensive dispels now have, so it's ostensibly spammable.

Glyph of Fade: Damage reduction is always good - this is high on my list now that mana burn is out, since instead of burns/cc's, I assume healers will be focused even more now. In addition, if your arena/RBG team doesn't require you to take a tier 1 CC talent (because you have other CC'ers) then this would be great in conjunction with the tier 1 talent, Phantasm.

Glyph of Fear Ward: Same as in Cataclysm - while this may have been vaguely useable in the past, taking up a precious glyph slot may not be worth it.

Glyph of Holy Nova: I found Holy Nova pretty useful in Arena against Death Knights who were trying to catch me with a Dark Simulacrum! But, like the Fear Ward glyph, I'd say this probably isn't great at this point.

Glyph of Inner Fire: In season 11, I swapped from using Inner Will to Inner Fire because, among other reasons, I was having trouble surviving against melee and thought a little armour might help me - if this remains the case in Season 12, this might be a useful glyph but...probably not.

Glyph of Inner Focus: MUST HAVE. I cannot stress this enough - please glyph Inner Focus. This is the only problem I have with the new talent system - lots of awesome tidbits that were originally baked into priest talents have been removed, like this beauty.

Glyph of Inner Sanctum: Depending on which comps are popular, the spell damage reduction may prove useful - also this is dependent on you using inner will, so if you don't...don't glyph it. With the new movement talents, the movement speed portion of this is arguably not required anymore.

Glyph of Leap of Faith: I have been frustrated in the past (mostly in RBGs) that I will LG someone and they won't move because they are under a movement impairing effect - this is, of course, my own fault but I was always of the opinion that Leap of Faith should just freaking move you regardless. This glyph will give you that. If you aren't running with a paladin, this one is probably a good idea - it's basically a 2 minute Hand of Freedom for priests!

Glyph of Levitate: I think for this glyph to be worth of an entire slot, you'd have to be willing to spam Levitate - will probably end up being a waste of globals. Also after some testing today, this glyph is self only. Not worth it for that miniscule increase.

Glyph of Mass Dispel: Obviously, an amazingly useful glyph - reduces base cast time of MD to 0.5 secs. I have been stuck without this glyph in arena a few times (due to my own idiocy) and sorely missed it.

Glyph of Penance: This is the celebrity-status new glyph for MOP for disc priests. Penance while moving?! Yes please! I think this may end up being a required glyph in arena at 90, although I didn't use it for the last two weeks of arena at 85. Since Penance also causes Atonement healing when used offensively, this glyph basically triples its effectiveness. I can't wait to play around with this one!

Glyph of Power Word: Shield: Kind of a no-brainer - you're going to be shielding people anyways, best to have it give an instant heal as well.

Glyph of Prayer of Mending: For me, this glyph (and it's Cata iteration) is a favourite - I rely heavily on PoM, and cast it on cooldown. This glyph makes that very worthwhile.

Glyph of Purify: Like glyph of dispel magic, I'd argue this 3% is too small to have any real effect.

Glyph of Renew: Glyphing renew for Disc PvP is something I've always done because I rely on instant heals almost exclusively when Inner Focus is on cooldown. At specific haste breakpoints, this will still be worth glyphing (see Derevka's Haste Breakpoint Chart and further discussion on the renew glyph at Tales of a Priest.)

I have omitted the Atonement buffing glyphs (Smite, Holy Fire, etc) although things may change as we get more gear with resilience.

And a final note: ABSOLUTELY NEVER USE THE MINOR GLYPH HOLY RESURRECTION IN PVP! Might as well wear a "Kick Me" sign.